Are you lonesome tonight?

Men in Tel Aviv are lonelier than men in Jerusalem; women in Jerusalem are lonelier than women in Tel Aviv.

By ERELA GANAN
Updated: APRIL 4, 2018 17:39
Survey of loneliness in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem (photo credit: JERUSALEM INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH)
Survey of loneliness in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
(photo credit: JERUSALEM INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH)
The Central Bureau of Statistics Social Survey for 2016 posed the following question to its respondents: “Are there situations in which you feel lonely?” I wondered – would I have answered that question honestly? And on a government survey? Which of the options (often; sometimes – from time to time; infrequently; never) would I have chosen? I’m still not sure, but in the meantime, this is what the existing data reveal...
Men in Tel Aviv are lonelier than men in Jerusalem; women in Jerusalem are lonelier than women in Tel Aviv. Some 6.7% of the men in Tel Aviv often feel lonely, as opposed to 3.7% of the men in Jerusalem, whereas 6.66% of the women in Jerusalem often feel lonely, as opposed to 5.94% of the women in Tel Aviv.
When you cluster the answers, the loneliness gaps by gender and by city blur – about 21% of the men in Jerusalem are often or occasionally lonely, similar to about 23% of the men in Tel Aviv. In general women feel lonelier than men do. About 80,000 women in Jerusalem (31%) and about 44,000 women in Tel Aviv (26%) say they feel lonely often or occasionally. The situation in Haifa isn’t much happier: 20,500 of the men in Haifa (21%) feel lonely often or occasionally, as opposed to about 30,000 women in Haifa (27%).
To what is the sense of loneliness connected, among Jerusalemites? I assumed that there would be a correspondence between the lev - el of loneliness and the quality of family relationships. The Central Bureau of Statistics looks into this as well, and asks: Are you satisfied with your relationship with your relatives? There were insufficient respondents to the options that express dissatisfaction or complete dissatisfaction and so the sampling error doesn’t allow for the presentation of the data, which means that I can’t reinforce or rule out my assumption. Still, of the 21% of the women in Jerusalem who report a frequent feeling of loneliness, 30% are “very satisfied” with their family relationships, and 70% are only “satisfied.” Among the 31% of women in Jerusalem who feel lonely now and again, 26% are “very satisfied” and connected to their families, while 74% are only “satisfied.”
What of the family status of the respondents? There are insufficient family status data about those who reported feeling a sense of loneliness “often.” At the same time, from among the approximately 17% of Jerusalemites who are lonely “occasionally,” about 71% are married, and about 29% are single. And among the approximately 24.4% of women in Jerusalem who are occasion - ally lonely, about 61% are married and about 39% are single.
Maybe, after all that, we can sum up and conclude that a sense of loneliness is part and parcel of human existence and it’s just as natural to feel loneliness as any other feeling. However, if you still feel overwhelmed, don’t keep it to yourself – it’s probably a good idea to seek help, or company...
Translated by Gilah Kahn.